Bizarre ditch question time.

[Dinosaur]

Surprising how many are though :face-approve:

[P Prentice]

presumably then you will be surprised at how many are not

[Dinosaur]

Nah, asking around most of the people who actually dig sites seem to agree with me :face-approve:

[P Prentice]

i have dug numerous unenclosed prehistoric settlements, anglo saxon cemeteries, a villa, many roman buildings, a few dmv's, discrete burials, post med buildings, and even a couple of castles with no sign of an enclosing ditch but i hear that you had a couple of really really long ditches and still failed to find anything else between them

[Dinosaur]

Big linear earthwork mound and all the palisade stuff was probably in the way Does a skelly count?

Admittedly the timber circle, barrows etc were merely alongside the ditches, but I'd contend that their presence aided identification?

[P Prentice]

Big linear earthwork mound and all the palisade stuff was probably in the way Does a skelly count?

Admittedly the timber circle, barrows etc were merely alongside the ditches, but I'd contend that their presence aided identification?

but not interpretation then

[Jack]

If you include construction trenches lots more stuff is enclosed.

Also I bet your 'unenclosed' prehistoric settlements were within a field system, or boundary system.

But yeah, am becoming pedantic.........enclosure is all a matter of definition and scale

[Dinosaur]

but not interpretation then

Will probably go for the default that 'Monument A was there so they stuck monuments B, C and D next to it' so we could find them while digging the ditches of Monument A - 'swat everyone else does :face-approve:

[tmsarch]

So we can conclude that archaeological sites are sometimes foundwithin ditches, sometimes found outside ditches, sometimes found adjacent/adjoining ditches and sometime are ditches... I'm sure Tool will have found this to be a useful and comprehensive reply!

[Tool]

So we can conclude that archaeological sites are sometimes foundwithin ditches, sometimes found outside ditches, sometimes found adjacent/adjoining ditches and sometime are ditches... I'm sure Tool will have found this to be a useful and comprehensive reply!

I have to say I have found the replies here informative. Not always informative about ditches, but informative none the less... Oh, and immensely amusing at times. So thanks to all who have put fingers to keys. I do agree with whoever it was who said the collective noun for a group of archaeologists should be an 'argument' though.